There is a new Star Trek fan production that has just released their first episode and it is pretty impressive. Star Trek Phoenix, produced by the Seattle-based Temporal Studios, is a new take on the 25th century of Trek’s prime universe, set aboard a massive new ship: the USS Phoenix. More details below.

Phoenix rises

Set 40 after Star Trek: Nemesis, this new fan film focuses on the adventures of the crew of the USS Phoenix (NCX-101138). The ‘Ascension Class ship is a massive 1,400 meters long and uses a hybrid of Romulan and Federation design, with a crew of more than 10,000. The pilot episode "Cloak & Dagger" takes place one year into the maiden voyage of the ship which has a mission of exploration and diplomacy.

The USS Phoenix

Star Trek: Phoenix has a cast of nine main characters, with many more playing guest roles in the pilot. The characters are a typical Star Trek crew with a mix of humans and aliens, including some new species. Headed by Ben Andrews who plays Captain Bryce Avari, the cast are all trained actors who have done commercial, stage, TV and film work. Phoenix Creator and Executive Producer Leo Roberts (who is also a casting director) remains behind the camera, telling TrekMovie his focus on experienced actors was one of the key goals for the series from the outset.

The Phoenix cast

Star Trek Phoenix has a large production team with more than 150 volunteers who have been working on the project for over two years. According to Roberts, one of the reasons they set the show 40 years after Nemesis, was to allow them to create a new look for the show – which required the creation of new uniform designs, new props, and even new alien make-up. For the pilot, much of the shooting was done on location as well as a number of ship locations (using a combination of standing sets and CGI). One set they did not build yet is the bridge of the USS Phoenix. Roberts says that he is hoping that the pilot is enough of a success to justify the cost of building a bridge as elaborate as the team has envisioned. Roberts and his team have already mapped out a first season for the show and hope to be producing new episodes soon.

You can download "Cloak and Dagger" and learn much more about Phoenix at the official website (www.stphoenix.com), which includes cast interviews, vignettes, behind-the-scenes photos and more.

I don’t know why they didn’t just put their time and efforts into an original production to justify the expense. At this point, all this effort without revenue is pointless and you’re asking people to wait around for two years while you make another one.

We want to tell stories in the Trek tradition. We want to put on a uniform and live the daydream for a while. We want to shout “Red alert! All hands to battlestations!” into a microphone. We want to have people — be it a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand or (if your name is Jim Cawley or Nick Cook) hundreds of thousands of them — believe in us as starship captains or science officers or Klingon warriors. We want to see the ships, hear the sounds, explore the Roddenberry universe one more time.

Writing, acting, and production are not about “revenue.” Revenue’s a means to make a career of it, but its worth is only instrumental. The value is in what we *do*, and in our *love* for doing it. This is true in every field: Socrates was arguably the greatest philosopher who ever lived, and as far as anyone can tell he never made a drachma off it. All he did was stand naked in the Agora, annoy and confuse passers-by, and get executed. For his love of philosophy over his love of return-on-investment ratios, he is recognized not only as a great philosopher but a pure one.

Fan producers are, for the most part, not great film- or radioplay-makers. (I include myself in that.) But we are *pure*. We do this because we love making shows, and we love Star Trek, and we’re willing to sacrifice a lot of mammon to bring the two together.

Definitely worth checking out. I really didn’t see much Romulan in the Romulan/Federation design of the ship. Maybe I will after I watch the first episode.
Could definitely give Mr. Cawley’s New Voyages a run for its money.

As with many of these fan productions, it isn’t the scripting, nor the direction. It’s the camera work. Actors aren’t shown to play off of one another; the viewer simply sees a close-up of a character (who often emotes poorly) without seeing how he or she is playing off of the situation.

ST New Voyages Phase II nails it sometimes (and sometimes not).

I would strongly recommend that the ST Phoenix production team rethinks the cinematography in their next episode. Select a visual style; set aside enough time to get quality angles, make it a storytelling experience, not a quick set-up, shoot, then move to the next scene.

Hats off to this project, very well done and continued success. Ive said it many times before but fanfic IS the wave of the future not only for Star Trek for for the motion picture indu$try in general. #11 said it very well.

I don’t want to sound harsh, because it looks like a lot of work went into this project. But that ship design is waaaayyy to busy, Definitely fits in with the Trek Online games, but I wouldn’t call it a beautiful or original ship design

Looks interesting! It is so very nice to see a new group coming along and giving all of us their take on one aspect of Star Trek! I will D/L and watch this first episode. Also, from all of us at new Voyages / phase II, our best wishes for a successful Star Trek: Phoenix!
These productions can be fun BUT it is a lot of work from script concept to production to post production, then distribution.
If you would like streaming video contact the folks at http://www.digitalnewage.com – three of these folks are NV/PII and Mr. Clark worked with us while at DragonFly.com (now defunct.)
Gary

The challenge is crossing the line of making it look and sound professional. The audio quality alone leaves it in the realm of amateur. As someone else mentioned, the visual quality of the actual video shot is too soap opera-ish.

Their cinematographer needs to work on things. The shots of the ship in space are too “cg”-y, and need to be reigned in (not in the rendering quality, but rather in the shot angles and camera moves). I agree with what ‘See No Evil’ says.

And the actors all suffer from the syndrome of ‘stand still while someone else talks, and then move around a lot and make lots of gestures while I talk’… There’s a lack of it feeling natural, like people actually talking to one another.

For all the criticism though, I think it’s a hell of an effort, and they all should be commended. It’s a great start to something that hopefully will learn and grow better over time.

#16 – Competition, nope. I don’t believe in that sort of thing in the fan film world. Good luck to them,I wish them nothing but the best!
On a personal note, I would never do any modern Trek. 24th century or this new Abrams 25th century reboot stuff, It’s not my cup of tea. For me it’s CLASSIC KIRK TREK or NOTHING!

This time it is the guy with the beard and mustache who looks like the 80’s era washed up x-rated actor…there always seems to be one guy who fits this bill in all of these amateur Trek web productions. :-)

James you stick to your guns and thats the sign of a true artist IMO, I admire that. Keep kicking butt. Although I’m a fan of the “Abrams re-boot”, and think it was/is needed as far as the franchise goes, Its only one interpretation of Star Trek and there is plenty of room for many more view points as far as art is concerned. And the great thing is that none of the interpretations are “more valide” or “better” than the others. Its art man.

Wow. Great fan film. I look forward to more. Unlike Mr. Cawley’s work, I think I can get into this one. Not to say I don’t think Mr. Cawley isn’t producing quality shows, I just can’t watch him as Kirk. Kirk’s my hero, and I have a filter for what is good character representation and what’s not. Pine captured it for some reason (much to my surprise), but I have been turned off by Mr. Cawley (sorry:)).

This new show, though… It is original so can “boldly go” in any direction it chooses, introducing characters in any way it chooses.

As a writer and video producer myself, however, I’d advice trying to break free from some previously established character elements, such as the dead father who was in Star Fleet (or the Federation in some form) which is reminiscent of Archer, or the doctor who’s afraid of transporting and full of wise-cracks. Also, like #18 pointed out, the cinematography needs to be more inclusive of the other actors while people deliver their lines so we can get reactions. The scene with the doctor is sarcastically suggesting they set up camp in the middle of a hostile environment, it would have worked great had the camera included the captain in the sequence, then the captain could have spoken his next dialogue immediately following the comment with perhaps a look of annoyance (or whatever else would be appropriate). Think fluidity. You never want dead time or a cut and paste feel when watching. Try and visualize every sequence before you shoot. Story boarding only helps to a degree, I find a mental image is best.

Now thats what I call Star Trek.It is far better than the Pilot´s of VOY or ENT.In the short ammount of Time you get as many insights you need in cool Flashbacks.There is (as always in these series) crew conflicts,buddys who know each other for some times,alien crew members which are to explore.For a low budget Fan Prouction it is extremely entertaining.It´s about time that ST returns as a regular series or direct to DVD Movies.The sarcasm of the the Doctor is marvelous.The only thing disturbing and missing, is the bridge,hope to see it soon.
Keep on with this tremendous work.It was fun :-)

Effects are great, music is very good, but the live action sequences need the help of a professional or semi-pro cinematographer. I’ve only filmed two videos in my life and I can tell you that this element, plus the right editing, is critical.

Well, I’m no expert in filmography but I have been in film classes and the filter used isn’t something that should be used with anything. It is so unprofessional and gives viewers a home-taped feel…or like watching a prime time soap.

It looks to have decent special effects, but the bit I watched was pretty unoriginal. The opening sequence & music was a mix of the opening sequences of Voyager and DS9, complete with the wormhole at the end. The ship seems to be an overgrown (WAY overgrown) Voyager. The acting was mediocre at best. The uniforms were pretty obvious Voyager / DS9 variants.

I mean, the uniforms don’t look bad, I just imagine Starfleet issuing more formal looking ones. Also, I’m wondering why there are more uniform colors. There’s always been red, blue, and a mustard color, and in Star Trek: the Motion Picture there was white. Now there’s purple. But like I said, the show looks well made. It looks like they put a lot into it.

It’s not the uniforms that make it look amateurish (nevermind that it doesn’t really fit the Trek style.)

It’s that the cinematography isn’t that great. It’s that their trailer is ripping off music from… what? Batman? It looks like a flashier student film, but a student film that I’m making right now with a $1000 dollar camera.

I was only able to watch about half of “Cloak And Dagger” before I quit. It just didn’t feel like Star Trek to me. While the production design was good, I didn’t care for the story or the acting. Captain Avari came off as a Captain Archer clone. I felt that the actor playing him was emulating Scott Bakula in mannerisms and speech patterns. The rest of the characters were bland. As others have pointed out, the cinematography left something to be desired.

The big problem for me though is it just didn’t feel like the Trek I have come to love. I think part of the problem comes from the fact that it is set 40 years after “Nemesis”, which was the last official Trek production to take place in the late 24th century. While there certainly were reminders that this was a Trek production, so much of the sets,costumes and props were very different to what I was accustomed to. It reminded me more of other sci-fi series like “Andromeda” or “Stargate”. I understand that 40 years after “Nemesis” things would be quite different, but I wish the producers stayed a bit closer to what was familiar.

This is the biggest problem for me. It takes place so far after everything else that it just doesn’t have the same feel as “Star Trek Phase II” or other fan productions. With “Phase II”, there is something to compare it to. “The Original Series”. I wish that instead of setting it 40 years after “Nemesis”, “Phoenix” would only be taking place between 10-20 years after.

A lot of you will disagree with me. And I will give this fan production another shot because it is still early. But I just couldn’t get into it like I could with James Cawley’s series.

Looks awful…may I STRONGLY RECOMMEND “Star Trek Specter” found on youtube…saw this the other day and was blown away by the attention to detail and the great music cues, not to mention a very good story.

Actually the ST: P uniforms are less casual than the original series uniforms, which themselves are cool. Of course it looks like they’re wearing jackets for away missions, so maybe, possibly there uniforms under the jackets are more like what are usually work by Starfleet officers.

Some of the effects look impressive for a fan made production, however there’s a certain aspect of unprofessionalism to it. Not only that but the ship its self looks like a mod out of Bridge Commander and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Still has potential, though.

1. The production design is quite nice. The tricorder, the computer interfaces: they’re a good evolution of the LCARS interfaces we’re familiar with. The phasers, though? They look out of place with everything else, and like they’ve been made in a wood work class. I can see a slight Romulan influence on them (while not really anywhere else in the film), but that’s a bit of a stretch.

2. The uniforms. I’m with the doctor. They’re awful. I do like the comm badge. But the faux-leather patches make the uniforms look like cut-offs from the local sex shop. The SABRE uniform is better for what they do (by the way, why go with SABRE? What’s wrong with MAKO?). The uniforms worn by the admiral and captain during their discussions, though not perfect, were better than the ones worn throughout the episode. I’ve a feeling the doctor mentioning that was a way of gauging a like or dislike from the audience.

3. I can’t understand what the captain says sometimes. His diction is terrible. He needs to open his mouth more when he’s speaking. And he does the cardboard cut-out thing a bit too often (ie, talking to someone, stopping mid-sentence, turning his back to them, and continuing with what he was saying, looking pensive – straight from The Shat school of acting). He also seems quite fond of cutting people’s requests off before it comes out of their mouths. Did it a few times. Quite rude. And it’d be nice for the audience to know what the person is requesting rather than the captain interrupting, and then repeating what the person was going to ask anyway. Feels quite forced.

4. I liked the Romulan/Vulcan ambassador. He’s half Vulcan, but what’s his other half? This seems a fairly important point, and it’s left out of the dialogue, despite it being deemed important enough to mention he was half something. However, the dialogue is given to forcing an explanation of what SABRE means, when it’s not really that important. There’s a few instances of dialogue being forced to offer an explanation of something. It’s like “I can’t get used to having the SABRE on board this ship, SABRE, which by the way means… Serious Anal Breakage Requires Expertise”. It might as well mean that. Despite the explanation, I still can’t remember what the acronym was for.

5. The transporter operator is pretty, but can’t act.

6. The doctor is a pastiche of a million other doctors we’ve already had. So was the holographic doctor in Voyager, but it was far more subtle, and there was good reason for it. This guy is just McCoy with a bad bleach job and an English accent. His complaints will become tiresome and grating after a while for the audience. But he seems to be one of the better actors on show. Will he be one of these fanfic doctors that wanders around being sarcastic, or will he get a chance to practice medicine? There’s also some kind of past between he and the captain alluded to. I find fanfic can often ALLUDE a lot, and not actually explain it. Work on that. It’s one area of potential.

7. Lots of characters. Lots of strange alien names to remember. None of them memorable. They all sound like T’something, but I can’t remember a single one of them. Think of all the famous Star Trek aliens through history… all have easy, monosylabic names, apart from T’Pol, who’s a spanner in the works. One-off characters can have more elaborate names, but the mainstays: Worf, Dax, Spock, Quark, Nog, Rom, etc – all catchy and easy to remember.

8. I like the make-up. The Vulculan (I’ve decided) ambassador’s ears looked quite cool. The Romulan’s make-up was nicely done. The primary cast make-up is quite nice too – not as elaborate with the head-bumps as we’ve come to expect but a nice job all the same. And understandable considering budget/time difficulties – a nice job. There’s something very Babylon 5 about the look, though. In fact, there’s something very Babylon 5 about the look of the whole show. That isn’t a criticism necessarily.

9. I think the omission of the bridge was a bad choice, and again felt forced. The bridge is the most important part of the ship. In a way I can understand why it wasn’t built, but it takes a major focal point away from the episode, which suffers as a result I feel. The bridge helps you identify with the roles of each character. Instead, it just appears that everyone spends their time walking around corridors. Maybe the creators were going for a West Wing vibe, but the dialogue was too stop-starty for that! The bridge would have provided the characters a better means to interact, and helped the audience remember who goes where. When you have to write an episode around the lack of a bridge, you’ve got a problem. It’s something I would seek to fix ASAP, because this show has potential.

10. The captain was at pain to score his XO. Who is the XO? It’s as clear as mud. The fact that everyone’s name sounds the same again doesn’t help here. But a lack of familiarity with the characters means I’m putting one unfamiliar sounding name to the wrong character’s face, most likely. In introducing it’s characters, The Next Generation did a good job in that the characters didn’t all come into the episode at the one time, they were staggered. Riker and the Crushers didn’t come into it until a ways into the first episode, yet a way was found to make them integral to the story. Other characters weren’t even given a name until later in the episode, or until an episode came up where it was deemed important. Hell, Chief O’Brien didn’t get a name until the third season! The point is: it’s information overload. We’ve been bombarded with new faces and new names all at once while we’re also looking at the new gismos on this new ship, and taking it all in isn’t so easy. I realise, being a “state ship” that a lot of characters are going to be introduced, but watch how it’s paced.

11. Fight scene was worse than with the Gorn in “Arena”. A lot of effort made elsewhere – but not on choreography or stunt people, clearly. I know your actors don’t want to get hurt, but gently resting against a tree-trunk after being thwacked in the face crosses the barrier where it’s difficult to suspend disbelief.

And, much to my enjoyment, “thwack” is in my computer’s dictionary. Great!

Anyway, for the most part I enjoyed this show. There is a lot of potential, and a lot of things that need to be ironed out. However, considering the budget, and time constraints, it’s not a bad job overall. Trained actors make a big difference in certain areas. No difference at all in others.

I know none of these fanfics will ever compete with a REAL Star Trek TV show or movie, especially visually. But the stories are there to make some really great episodes. There’s certainly no shortage of imagination. Some of the design on offer here is also great (being a designer myself). But there are shortfalls here that have affected other fan fiction stories I’ve seen. James Cawley’s Phase II/New Voyages (I guess it’s inevitable to compare the two) had similar problems in it’s earlier iterations, and slowly but surely that’s starting to iron itself out. Given time, I can see that happening here too, if characters are given a chance to come into their own and not become a facsimile of what we’ve already had.

Watched the show last night, best Fan Film I’ve ever seen. Display panel graphics were good, and characters interacted well with them. Starfleet command scene was interesting with flying vehicles going by, outside teh window. However the CGI of the ship and planets, etc. took away from it. While most of the live-action shots were good, when it switched to the ship, it felt like you were suddenly watching a cartoon, or ST:Online. I watched it on my HDTV, and the dark of space was not dark. The blacks were more grey, etc., and I thought that may have been part of the reason that the “big” CGI shots seemed flat, and cartoon’ish. That said, for a pilot to look this good, I would say that they have great potential if they keep going.

Looks cool, but I don’t get why they never report on Star Trek fan audio dramas. Take darkerprojects.com, they have two fan series, Star Trek: The Section 31 Files and Star Trek: Lost Frontier. The former completed it’s run about a year ago and it’s pretty good. Also check out Pendant Productions Star Trek Defiant, it’s also pretty good. All of these are available on iTunes podcast but Pendant Productions are compressed for download so you’ll need to download it on their web site for CD quality.

I love the visuals of the ships and the planets. However, the creator made Star Trek look like one of those video game movies like “Doom” and “Resident Evil”. The actors are just chasing each other in the middle of the woods.

What happen to the exploration aspect of ST? The optimism? The bright future? Roddenberry hated the fact that his Starfleet creation became more of a military institution as oppose to a group of “explorers”. This creator’s interpretation of ST follows the military path.

I am an enthusiastic supporter of fan-made stuff, and it doesn’t have to be (nor do I expect it to be) of the same caliber as a Hollywood production.
These people do it for love, not for $$$. If they had the budgets the pros have, they probably would not have to endure a lot of the criticism leveled against them. Many of these people are not professional actors, so, IMO, criticizing them is like spitting in the wind. I give them a lot of credit for using their blood, sweat & tears in lieu of $$$. Give them a break with the criticism. Or put up and make your own show.

77: “Many of these people are not professional actors, so, IMO, criticizing them is like spitting in the wind.”

To quote the article: “Headed by Ben Andrews who plays Captain Bryce Avari, the cast are all trained actors who have done commercial, stage, TV and film work.”

Besides, you don’t create something without expecting some kind of criticism. I know this as a graphic designer, amateur photographer and musician. You can’t improve without some kind of criticism. Preferably constructive. Not being able to understand what the Captain was saying is legitimate critique. You can’t improve unless you know what you’re supposed to be improving on. When I posted my critique, I also pointed out the positive aspects of the show. So don’t be so damning of criticism. It’s more valuable than you realise.

This was a fantastic pilot episode. Go back and watch the original pilot for Phase II. There is a reason they don’t list it in their main directory of episodes.

All things considered for a first episode of a fan series it was pretty amazing. Great FX, and acting. Once again the space visuals were not nearly as good as the rest of it, but I thought it fit in perfectly with what a show might look like in a post Voyager/Nemesis universe.

Thanks everyone for every piece of feedback, you guys are fantastic. Whether you loved it, liked it, despise it or hate it – its art and that’s what we all do is provide our opinion. I appreciate that you took the time to submit your comments and on behalf of the cast and crew of Phoenix – thank you.

I will wholeheartedly agree with James Cawley on his comments. This isn’t a competition. Phase II is awesome and I love their work. They operate in the Original Series, whereas, we operate in the future. We are two entirely different productions offering fans a different perspective on Trek.

#11 wow, James, I was picturing Kirk saying what you wrote there! Amazing! If the scripts for Phoenix have the kind of passion you displayed with just that little post then it should be a blast!
Good luck to you.

I totally agree. coming from an art background, the ONLY way i got aNY better in my schooling and projects was to have my classmates tell me just what i needed to improve upon. yes, there are the jerks that just tear apart work simply because they can/feel that they’re far superior so they can rip on everyone else for not being as good.

simply put, constructive feedback, aimed at making something better helps ensure that it will get better. maybe not right away, but that’s what persistence is.

all in all, i commend this crew of film makers for havin the courage and rive to produce something that they love, and something that i myself would love to do in my spare time.

Your point is well taken. I am also a musician, artist, writer, and I certainly don’t expect everyone to like what I do, and I expect criticism. However, I was speaking in general terms, not specifically about the Phoenix project, and I feel that sometimes a lot of the criticism that gets tossed about is not particularly constructive, it’s more like, “This is awful…” As I mentioned, most of these film-makers are doing this as a labor of love, without the benefit of many of the resources available to pro studios.
I certainly appreciate the necessity of growing and improving, and criticism — especially when it comes from sincere, knowledgable people — is part of the process. If someone says, “Your melody reminds me too much of such-and-such a song,” that could be constructive. If someone says, “Your song is terrible,” that’s not worth much, IMO. I meant to be damning of such worthless criticism and probably should have been more specific.

Star Trek Phoenix, you had me at the female to male ratio of 1 out of 3. Trek09 and beyond? Most likely 1 out of 7. And it doesn’t look like there are any skirt wearing women anywhere. That’s a plus in my book

@84 Philip Dunlop
As I believe I clearly stated in my post – I do not accept that any piece of JJ trash has impacted upon the true Star Trek Continuity.
Romulus was NOT destroyed in the real Star Trek universe.
I can’t imagine why anyone would allow JJ to contribute to canon.

Seems interesting indeed and a very great idea to see what is beyond the 23rd & 24th century in Star Trek lore. Although the look appears to be some what like BSG in regards to uniforms and even the ship…in my opinion. I grew up with TOS uniforms and then with TNG versions, that will always be in my mind when ever I seen these films.
Although I still have never seen a reasonable explaination for the color switch for TOS Command to TNG Engineering and vice versa. On ly the rumor that the costumer on TNG mixed up the colors by accident when the series first started.

I would not mind seeing something like this as the next series! Impressive.

And I, like others, do not see that the JJ film has ANY impact on the original Trek universe. Everything is as it was. The other is a different timeline/dimension that you can be in, or not be in. Nothing has changed in TOS or since.

I agree with the posts above about the lens “Soap Opera” approach, no filters on the lenses makes it look like a quick-live soap opera/Guiding Light production, but the action does look intriguing, and I also thought of G.I. Joe when I saw the clip the first time.
As for Mr. Cawley, he is correct, there is no competition here, this is a totally different view of our beloved series, and Cawley’s masterpieces have enough SOLID Star Trek to keep me coming back for more.

The thing that has been true about Trek since the beginning is that it inspires it’s fans to create their own adventures. It used to be only in written stories, and it has progressed into every medium. We can’t critique each one as if it was “official Trek” released by Paramount; but we can enjoy their efforts, as a fan, and recognize the reason behind it even when it’s less than perfect; love of Trek.

I think it’s not Star Trek, either. I mean, c’mon people, Star Trek shouldn’t be about ‘splosions & wars’ that we’ve seen countless times in the sequel series. I admit there are some good points as well as bad. I have to say though I much prefer Mr Crowley’s approach (which to me IS Star Trek right outta Roddenberry & Coon’s typewriters). That being said, the guy playing Karkko is hawt!

ermmm as someone has sed early im preety sure ur not allowed to use that music in your trailer as its licensed music with a band called freedom fighters and as im sure many of you are aware featured in the second st11 trailer …

I’ve never been very fond of fan based productions…I may have to re-think that perspective. I just watched the opening episode, it is a real piece of work. These folks did an amazing job. There is exquisite attention paid to detail, from the costumes, the props, the special effects, the music…it is all very well done. I’ve done some experimenting with Photoshop, Blender, Garageband and various other computer apps for CGI, I found myself wondering just how they could have put together a fan episode that is so well thought out. I would love to have seen what these folks could have done with a JJ Abrams style budget.

Keep up the good work Phoenix, I look forward to your next episode. Truly amazing.

Trained actors, elaborate new designs and whatnot. It’s more like they are training for the time there might be a new series. As long as they are all Star Trek fans, kI’m all for it. Mabye that’s the future of Star Trek. No more network produced series but fanmade series’ that CBS could show now and again. And Paramount focuses on producing movies only.
The fan productions are often more creative than networl stuff and sometimes even look like network productions.

A successful web series might provoke CBS/Paramount into giving us another weekly series. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the last movie. I am just saying that now that Berman & Co are off Trek, some fresh blood into the TNG timeline would be appreciated.

This looks good, and with some serious coin invested by the owners of the rights, it could be better and draw some serious audience on a weekly basis.

Some thoughts: The transporter effect needs some work, maybe instead of the flash drop it would look better if it were more of a flash/burst in the center of the body. The set (transporter room) could use some work as well, the angled beams with the Star Wars/Death Star like lights could be better. Also the phaser sound effects need to be punched up a bit.
Like the ship – get the Romulan influence, effect make up is good, the computer interface is very nice and I like how it’s tied into the wrist tri-corder. Actors aren’t bad at all for a fan film esp like the Dr. and the Romulan Ambassador. Hope to see the bridge in the next ep. I’m assuming that from the size of the ship the bridge would be quite larger than what we’re used to seeing, maybe something like the Prometheus or the Dauntless in style would be nice.

I’ve watched the first episode and like the production values, the enthusiasm of the cast, and the CGI… The story needs a bit of work in the future and the setup shots as well… but those are minor points. It’s a great first start and I look to them to continue to grow and learn and make a great contribution to fan films.

* Outdoor Locations were great, especially in terrain like the pacific northwest.

* The makeup was great.

* For the most part, the acting was decent.

* Nicely done sets

The Bad:

* While the sets and locations were nice, the CG of the ship and other things werent nearly up to the same level the VFX were on a lower plane than the rest of the production.

* Actually, i liked the original uniforms better, these with the pads looked like they were taken off of Star Trek Online.

* The captain either seems to have anger issues or something, he seems to have a snarl about him even when talking to most of his crew, at least from what I saw. The doctor was funny, yes, but after a while the complaining shtick can get old.

* rapid-fire blaster like phasers? not my cup of tea.

The Ugly:

* Well not really ugly, I suppose, but the amount of flashbacks in a 30 minute episode just made my brain melt down and really broke the flow of the story. I understand its a way to introduce the characters, but that amount of jumping around in that short of time killed it for me.

The Hilarious:

* The SABRE uniforms do not do any favors for the larger actors – it makes them look like Pakleds, which had me rolling every time one of them showed up.

#76 What happen to the exploration aspect of ST? The optimism? The bright future? Roddenberry hated the fact that his Starfleet creation became more of a military institution as oppose to a group of “explorers”. This creator’s interpretation of ST follows the military path.

THIS!

It never fails to amaze me how even Paramount went straight to ‘lock and load’ mode when promoting ST. I want my Roddenberry fix.

It should be noted though that I have not seen the episode yet, just the trailer.

I know many are thinking that we have a military approach to Star Trek but we don’t. This is the Pilot so therefore we tried an interesting plot that offered many elements of an interesting story: action, humor, mystery, etc. Phoenix as a series isn’t about wars and all out action. There are episodes that deal with nothing but science and exploration so this is just the beginning. No matter what end of the spectrum you think Phoenix lies in, I appreciate all of your feedback because it helps us become better filmmakers not only for Phoenix but also other projects we have in development.

You know, I finally was able to download this episode from the website. First impression is that the characters lack personality and are boring bad actors. The CGI effects are nice but they alone cannot carry the series. So far I’m not sure where this is going? The plot made very little sense. Too many unfamiliar elements being crammed into one episode. On the positive side again the effects were good. The variation on the ST09 transporters is interesting. I like the music too. Hopefully the second episode is better! For something that has been in development for so long I am really disappointed! This series has NOTHING on Star Trek New Voyages. Those saying this crapped all over it are full of crap themselves!

@CaptainHawk: Forgive me but to say that you “hate” all fan productions because they “suck” is prejudicial and, if you’ll forgive me, arrogane and presumptuous. Fan productions can’t all be what Of Gods and Men was; not everyone has access to professional tools so some of us have to work with what we have. “Specter” is my baby and it’s been a work in progress for almost four years now (those sets don’t build themselves you know). Yes, I re-used some music from the series and movies; yes the voice acting is somewhat lackluster (I’m doing all the parts for right now but once it’s finished I’m replacing my temp tracks with a full ensemble cast). And admittedly, the Poser 4 characters I’m using aren’t the greatest ones available (higher-res characters from DAZ are available but they would be impractical given the computing power I have available). But to compare it to “1990 CGI” is frankly insulting; I’m using consumer-grade tools and a few prefab characters, and what’s there is the best I have.

If you hate all fan productions, I’d challenge you to do better. Otherwise, don’t just blindly insult other peoples’ hard work.

At first I thought it was bad acting. Then I took a look and found it was more than that. It’s ok that something is low budget, fan made, etc. etc.,however, something that needs to be considered is how “manly” the guy characters are. They all have high pitched voices and when they’re talking to each other or playing off each other, it’s hard to take them serioiusly. It’s like watching hitchikers guide to the galaxy. No offense, but the captain talks with a bit of a lisp from what I can hear. Even with low budget, it’s quite easy to use better sound effects for the voices. That’s my biggest pet peeve of the first show. On the plus side, it’s a good start, good attempt, and things can always be improved. I remember when “The Next Generation” started and looking back, it had quite the cheesy elements as well. As the shows went on, it improved quite quickly. Phoenix has the same potential.

I Stopped watching Star trek in the early 90’s because of the 45 minute problem 5 min solution formula.

Babylon 5 was a much better show in the 90’s and then Battlestar Galactica in the 00′. It seem that the fan films capture the Star Trek universe much better than paramount. An after watch that POS len flair movie last year.. I am glad we have New Voyages and now Temporal Studios starting to put out new and better show.

I need a good male pseudonym to use when blogging.. Sorry if this is the wrong place for the question :(. It sort of relates because I want to blog, but I don’t want my acquaintances/friends to see it..